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This fiery saga Sparks off when a Police Officer, whose family was killed by a bandit named Gabbar Singh, decides to fight fire with fire and recruits two convicts, Jai and Veeru to capture Gabbar.
He approaches them in jail, puts the proposal in front of them, and they agree to bring in Gabbar Singh alive - for a hefty price. After their discharge from jail, they travel by train to the village where the Police Officer lives - now with only his widowed daughter-in-law.
The three band together to fight one of the most elusive and dreaded bandits of all time. Will the two ex-cons be able to bring Gabbar alive to the Police Officer?

Storyline

In the small village of Ramgarh, the retired policeman Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar) summons a pair of small-time thieves that he had once arrested. Thakur feels that the duo—Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan)—would be ideal to help him capture Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan), a dacoit wanted by the authorities for a INR 50,000 reward. Thakur tells them to surrender Gabbar to him, alive, for an additional INR 20,000 reward.

The two thieves thwart the dacoits sent by Gabbar to extort the villagers. Soon afterwards, Gabbar and his goons attack Ramgarh during the festival of Holi. In a tough battle, Veeru and Jai are cornered. Thakur, although he has a gun within his reach, does not help them. Veeru and Jai fight back and the bandits flee.

The two are, however, upset at Thakur's inaction, and consider leaving the village. Thakur explains that Gabbar had killed nearly all of his family members, and cut off both his arms a few years earlier, which is why he could not use the gun. He had concealed the dismemberment by always wearing a shawl.

Living in Ramgarh, the lively Veeru and cynical Jai find themselves growing fond of the villagers. Veeru is attracted to Basanti (Hema Malini), a feisty, talkative young woman who makes her living by driving a horse-cart. Jai is drawn to Radha (Jaya Bhaduri), Thakur's reclusive, widowed daughter-in-law, who subtly returns his affections.

Skirmishes between Gabbar's gang and Jai-Veeru finally result in the capture of Veeru and Basanti by the dacoits. Jai attacks the gang, and the three are able to flee Gabbar's hideout with dacoits in pursuit. Fighting from behind a rock, Jai and Veeru nearly run out of ammunition. Veeru, unaware that Jai was wounded in the gunfight, is forced to leave for more ammunition.

Meanwhile, Jai, who is continuing the gunfight singlehandedly, decides to sacrifice himself by using his last bullet to ignite dynamite sticks on a bridge from close range.

Veeru returns, and Jai dies in his arms. Enraged, Veeru attacks Gabbar's den and catches the dacoit. Veeru nearly beats Gabbar to death when Thakur appears and reminds Veeru of the promise to hand over Gabbar alive. Thakur uses his spike-soled shoes to severely injure Gabbar and destroy his hands. The police then arrive and arrest Gabbar. After Jai's funeral, Veeru leaves Ramgarh and finds Basanti waiting for him on the train. Radha is left alone again.

In 2005, the judges of the 50th annual Filmfare Awards named it the Best Film of 50 Years.

This movie was ranked first in the British Film Institute's 2002 poll of "Top 10 Indian Films" of all time.

Amitabh Bachchan was almost killed at the end of the movie when a stray bullet from 'Dharmendra' missed him by inches.

Initially, Dharmendra was keen to play the role of Thakur Baldev Singh. He eventually relented when the director informed him that Sanjeev Kumar would play Veeru if that happened, and would get the heroine. Sanjeev Kumar had just then proposed marriage to Hema Malini. Dharmendra was in love with her and quickly went back to the role of Veeru.

The film was shot extensively in Ramnagaram near Bangalore, India. There are huge rocks of granite in this town which formed the backdrop of Gabbar Singh's hideout. As a mark of respect, the people of Ramnagaram renamed a hamlet in the town as Sippynagar after the director of the movie, Ramesh Sippy.

The famous overhead tank scene where Veeru threatens Mausi with suicide and Jai attempts at making a proposal of marriage was drawn from a real-life incident.

The train robbery sequence took about 20 days to film on the Mumbai-Pune line, near Panvel.

Amjad Khan's calling one of his associates Sambha caught the fancy of not just moviegoers but also producers. Because of this, a producer promptly announced a movie titled "Sambha."

The flamboyant Shatrughan Sinha was initially cast for the role of Jai, but Amitabh Bachchan convinced the producers that he was suitable for the role.

Hema Malini is not any scenes with Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bhaduri because Sanjeev had just proposed to Hema, and she did not want to be near him.

Sachin received a refrigerator as remuneration for his acting.

Jai and Veeru were named after Salim Khan's college friends, Veerandar Singh Bias, son of a jagirdar at Khajrana Kothi, Indore and Jai Singh Rao Kalevar, a Pindari warrior and vegetable farmer. Both have passed away.

Actor Mushtaq Merchant plays two roles in the film. The first role is as the train driver in famous train scene. The second role is when Jai Veeru steal a Parsi mans motorcycle. He plays the Parsi man.

Initially a song called "Ke Chand Sa Koi Chehra" was recorded which is a qawwali, but the song was dropped from the movie owing to the length of the movie. One of the singers of the song was the lyricist Anand Bakshi while the others were Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar and Bhupendra.

Danny Denzongpa, who was initially offered the role of Gabbar Singh, was busy shooting Dharmatma (1975) in Afhganistan. He could not accept the role, and the reluctant second choice 'Amjad Khan' got it instead.

Director Manmohan Desai was first approached by the writing duo of Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan with the story for this movie. He was busy shooting Chacha Bhatija (1977) and could not accept the project.

This film was directly inspired by the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, by Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954), Bandidos (1967) among others. Some critics at the time even began calling it a curry western.

This was the first film in the history of Indian cinema to celebrate a silver-jubilee (25-week) initial release at over 100 theaters across India.

Sholay's initial theatrical release was 10 years, where it played in a Mumbai theater. This record lasted until it was broken by Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), which was still in its initial theatrical release as of 2007.

Only four 70mm prints of Sholay were released initially: one for Delhi, one for Uttar Pradesh and two for Bombay-Maharashtra. The same 70mm print was screened at two cinema halls in Delhi, which had different show timings. It would be taken back and forth between the two halls in a car. It was exactly the same with India's first 70mm film, Around the World.

The popular character Sambha has only one line of dialogue in the movie: when Gabbar Singh asks him to tell everyone how much reward is on his head, Sambha says, "All of fifty thousand!".

Sholay, despite being a huge hit, received only one Filmfare award (best editing: MS Shinde...The awards for the best film, the best dialogues, the best direction and others went to Deewar.

Salim-Javed sold two ideas to the producers Sippy's, Majboor and a four-line idea which later on went to become Sholay. Sholay was sold at a lesser price (Rs. 1.5 lakh) than the other Majboor (Rs 2 lakh). Majboor later was sold to producer Premji.

It was Salim, known to the younger audience as Salman Khan's father, who recommended Amitabh Bachchan for Jai's character. It was met with some opposition, but a trial of Zanjeer convinced them to cast Amitabh.

Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar's Thakur) is the name of Salim Khan father-in-law (wife Salma's father). A dentist by profession, he still has a clinic in Mahim, suburban Mumbai.

It was Javed Akhtar who had proposed Amjad Khan's name after having spotted him and his brother Imtiaz in the play Ai Mere Watan Ke Logo in 1963. Amjad had acted in a few films before but Sholay was his first major billing.

Salim Khan discloses how Jai's coin-flipping trick was directly adapted from the Gary Cooper-starring Garden of Evil. In that film, Gary Cooper and Richard Widmark draw cards to decide who will leave and who will stay behind to fight off the Apaches.

A hand can be seen in the right hand corner holding the front wheel of Dharmendra 's bike.It is during the song " Koi Haseena" when Dharmendra does a pop wheely with his cycle.

The film was re-released in 3D format on 3 January 2014.

The casting of Sholay was more or less finished even before the release of Zanjeer.

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